There's an original wizards page saying that, to paraphrase, the 5 unfun deck types are prison, fast-combos, draw-go, land destruction and resource advantage. Other people must have read the same thing:
Most legacy players probably thinks Modern is just Standard format mythic-rare creature bashing in glorified form. And I sort of agree.
Then I saw top 8 deck list of Pro Tour Return to Ravnica. Couldn't believe my eyes. Ever the number cruncher, I searched the (approximate) secondary market price of the cards.
1st Stanslav Cifka 160.92
2nd Yuuya Watanabe 931.66
3rd David Ochoa 924.73
4th Lee Shi Tian 417.56
5th Eduardo Sajgalik 589.17
6th Kelvin Chew 259.44
7th Willy Edel 838.77
8th Pedro Carvalho 248.90
I know second breakfast is boring to watch. It is non-interactive. You have to sit and wait it out in case it fizzles or you sense a mistake and can try to throw an instant-speed card to disrupt it. It takes longer than high tide in legacy. Lots of people hate it. It's also less "interactive", in WoTC definition.
But it's dirt cheap! Skill-intensive! No creature bashing Yu-Gi-Oh style! In fact, no creatures at all! No bomb rares! Highly consistent! Best of all, it's true deck building. Individually fair cards combined for explosive power. None of that "play expensive good cards" Jund style. None of that UW "control" style, where control means 3-mana-hexproof-legendary-creature attacking for 6 power (not even RG gets that kind of efficiency!).
I know creature-instant-land is a thing. I also know pokemon-trainer-energy is also a thing.
Thanks a lot for your advice Izzetmage! I love your deck ideas, not sure yet how to make them work, you bet I will try though!
The problem with decks like RW lockdown, UR domain and Restore Balance is they are too slow and easily disrupted. Also, casual gamers love aggro-control decks (photo)-copied off the internet. Now let's look at the top8 in the 4 recent grand prix, 32 in total:
Affinity: attack with signal pest/ornithopter, pay BB attach cranial plating, ensnaring bridge blanked.
Aggro Loam & Jund: discard your pieces then Goyf/Bob.
UWR Aggro, Mono U faeries, RUG aggro: delver/faerie and counter all your pieces.
That's already 80% of the metagame.
Law of unintended consequences: WoTC wants creatures to be played more so they were buffed up. But players still start on 20 life, so aggro creature decks now play LESS creatures because 2 cheap ones already put you on a fast clock, no need to over-extend. Instead, they freed up space to fit discard/counter against answers. With less creatures in play, sweepers no longer gain virtual card advantage, might as well run spot removal with lower CMC to stop the bleeding before being lowered to burn range. The balance between aggro<-->combo<-->control is lost.
This is why I emphasised that I will start with a clean slate, like a vampire veteren pikeman learning how to use assault rifles for the first time after 500 years of slumber. Naya/Melira pod seems to be my only option but pods get extracted by slaughter games 29+ creature decks get wiped by divine verdict. Glen Elendra archmage can't even stop it. Token decks and Past in Flames can Rest in Peace.
Played Magic 1997-2000, stopped, re-started couple months ago. Wants to play eternal but formats that depend on the existance of Force of Will are structurally unsound.
Favorite Playstyle: not sure
How Competitive: FNM tourney, maybe PTQ but won't fly out even if I win.
Favorite Cards/Colors: not sure, see below
Budget: $150/yr annuitised. Large down-payment is okay if archtype won't obselete in 18 months.
Staples Owned: Basically none, it's all completely obselete so I'm starting clean. During junior high I played:
1) Stasis-Prison.
2) Land destruction (plow-under, army ants, stone rain).
3) UW draw-Go (capsize, peacekeeper, 24 counter-spells).
I won a lot but I wouldn't equate the Magic skills of teenagers to adults.
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29392387/?pg=last
http://lttlefootsbudgetworkshop.wordpress.com/
Does anyone have the original source? Thanks a lot!
1) Land is put into play, landfall trigger resolves, library shuffle.
2) Land is put into play, library shuffle, landfall trigger resolves.
Don't raise a dead thread, make a new one instead. ~parinoid
"You can't win the game and your opponents can't lose the game."
Show it to your friends and family.
They will think you made it up to troll little kids that play Magic and spending $$$ chasing "mythic rares".
They will tell you to be nice because "you were a kid once".
Some Magic players might even think you made it up as a joke and appreciate your sense of humour.
More importantly, after showing this card, how can you possibly explain to them that grown men like ourselves also waste $$$ chasing mythic rares?
And assuming you manage that, how do you then explain that this is a good card?!?!?!
Then I saw top 8 deck list of Pro Tour Return to Ravnica. Couldn't believe my eyes. Ever the number cruncher, I searched the (approximate) secondary market price of the cards.
1st Stanslav Cifka 160.92
2nd Yuuya Watanabe 931.66
3rd David Ochoa 924.73
4th Lee Shi Tian 417.56
5th Eduardo Sajgalik 589.17
6th Kelvin Chew 259.44
7th Willy Edel 838.77
8th Pedro Carvalho 248.90
I know second breakfast is boring to watch. It is non-interactive. You have to sit and wait it out in case it fizzles or you sense a mistake and can try to throw an instant-speed card to disrupt it. It takes longer than high tide in legacy. Lots of people hate it. It's also less "interactive", in WoTC definition.
But it's dirt cheap! Skill-intensive! No creature bashing Yu-Gi-Oh style! In fact, no creatures at all! No bomb rares! Highly consistent! Best of all, it's true deck building. Individually fair cards combined for explosive power. None of that "play expensive good cards" Jund style. None of that UW "control" style, where control means 3-mana-hexproof-legendary-creature attacking for 6 power (not even RG gets that kind of efficiency!).
I know creature-instant-land is a thing. I also know pokemon-trainer-energy is also a thing.
The problem with decks like RW lockdown, UR domain and Restore Balance is they are too slow and easily disrupted. Also, casual gamers love aggro-control decks (photo)-copied off the internet. Now let's look at the top8 in the 4 recent grand prix, 32 in total:
Affinity: attack with signal pest/ornithopter, pay BB attach cranial plating, ensnaring bridge blanked.
Aggro Loam & Jund: discard your pieces then Goyf/Bob.
UWR Aggro, Mono U faeries, RUG aggro: delver/faerie and counter all your pieces.
That's already 80% of the metagame.
Law of unintended consequences: WoTC wants creatures to be played more so they were buffed up. But players still start on 20 life, so aggro creature decks now play LESS creatures because 2 cheap ones already put you on a fast clock, no need to over-extend. Instead, they freed up space to fit discard/counter against answers. With less creatures in play, sweepers no longer gain virtual card advantage, might as well run spot removal with lower CMC to stop the bleeding before being lowered to burn range. The balance between aggro<-->combo<-->control is lost.
This is why I emphasised that I will start with a clean slate, like a vampire veteren pikeman learning how to use assault rifles for the first time after 500 years of slumber. Naya/Melira pod seems to be my only option but pods get extracted by slaughter games 29+ creature decks get wiped by divine verdict. Glen Elendra archmage can't even stop it. Token decks and Past in Flames can Rest in Peace.
Favorite Playstyle: not sure
How Competitive: FNM tourney, maybe PTQ but won't fly out even if I win.
Favorite Cards/Colors: not sure, see below
Budget: $150/yr annuitised. Large down-payment is okay if archtype won't obselete in 18 months.
Staples Owned: Basically none, it's all completely obselete so I'm starting clean. During junior high I played:
1) Stasis-Prison.
2) Land destruction (plow-under, army ants, stone rain).
3) UW draw-Go (capsize, peacekeeper, 24 counter-spells).
I won a lot but I wouldn't equate the Magic skills of teenagers to adults.